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The  following  addresses  are  printed  in 
memory  of  President  Cravath  for  the 
benefit  of  the  friends  who  could  not 
be  present  at  the  funeral  services  held 
in  the  Fisk  Memorial  Chapel  at  Nash- 
nlle.  It  was  at  Nashville  that  Chap- 
lain  Cravath  was  mustered  out  of  the 
Union  service  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
and  there  he  began  in  the  same  year 
the  great  work  to  which  he  conse- 
crated his  life.  It  was,  therefore,  pe- 
culiarly fitting  that,  in  compliance 
with  his  often  expressed  wish.  Dr. 
Cravath  was  buried  among  his  com- 
rades who  had  given  up  their  lives  to 
emancipate  the  race  to  the  uplifting  of 
which  he  gave  a  lifetime  of  devotion. 
The  story  of  a  noble  life  and  a  great 
victory  was  never  more  beautifully  told 
than  by  that  scene  in  the  beautiful 
National  Cemetery  at  Nashville  when,  at 


M18441; 


sun  dowTiy  comrades  of  the  Union  armyy 
side  bjr  side  with  veterans  of  the  Con- 
federate armj^y  followed  by  a  multitude 
freed  from  bondage ,  lonngly  carried 
their  Jriend  to  his  last  resting-place 
within  gun  shot  of  the  hills  where,  thirty- 
six  years  before,  the  contending  armies 
had  camped. 


g^^l^ia 


anuresfi  of  J^v.  a.  iJf.  QBearti. 


HE  separation  of  the  soul  from  the 
body,  which  we  call  death,  is  in 
itself  unspeakably  sad.  There  is 
seldom  in  earthly  life  any  event 
more  sad. 

If  we  look  out  upon  life,  spread  before  us  as 
a  great  picture,  the  study  of  it,  in  composition 
and  coloring,  shows  the  shadows  laid  on  in 
deep  lines.  There  are  the  checks  of  Provi- 
dence, the  shocks  of  calamity,  and  mysteries 
of  trouble.  We  see  life  breaking  off  into  preci- 
pices and  hopelessly  lost  in  deserts.  We  see 
ideals  never  fulfilled,  and  promises  coUapsiug 
before  they  reach  fulfilment.  We  see  human 
ambition  mocked,  the  largeness  of  human  de- 
sires here  in  contempt,  the  pride  of  life,  the 
pomp  of  power  forever  fading  in  a  dissolving 
view.  Youth  in  life's  green  spring,  man  in  the 
full  strength  of  years,  the  sweet  babe  and 

5 


Wt.  25earti'^  Sltiteeief^ 


grayhaired  age,  together  departing  in  sudden 
and  awful  silence,  and  long  troops  of  most  pre- 
cious affections  expiring,  until  at  last,  above  all 
the  gladness  and  pleasures  of  life,  the  picture 
appears  as  one  great  burial-place  with  a  cease- 
less procession  passing  on  in  the  solemn  march 
of  death,  while  the  atmosphere  grows  dark  with 
farewells  to  the  dying  and  mournings  for  the 
dead.  It  is  a  picture  of  incompleteness,  of 
broken  plans,  of  work  unfinished,  until  one  is 
well-nigh  ready  to  exclaim,  in  the  wail  of  the 
dejected  man  uttered  nearly  three  thousand 
years  ago,  "  Therefore  I  came  to  hate  life ;  the 
work  of  it  is  grievous  to  me,  for  one  genera- 
tion passeth  away  and  another  cometh;  and 
man  cometh  with  vanity  and  departeth  in 
darkness." 

Thus  death  casts  its  shadow  constantly  on 
the  vision  of  life.  The  prostrate  form,  whose 
voice  was  sweet  to  those  to  whom  it  spoke, 
speaks  no  more.  The  dear  face  which  held  all 
the  tender  love  that  life  had  to  give  responds 
no  more.  The  language  of  scope  and  delicacy 
which  uttered  the  strong  thoughts  and  pleasant 
fancies  of  the  soul  is  hushed.  The  flashing 
eye  is  dim..  The  hand  no  more  gives  its  grasp. 
Therefore  I  say  that  the  separation  of  the  soul 
from  the  body  is  in  itself  inexpressibly  sad  — 
the  more  sad  that  there  is  no  escape  from  it. 

6 


SDr*  25ca!*'^  9llbbte^^ 


It  was  Victor  Hugo,  the  great  poet  of  France, 
who  said,  "We  are  all  condemned  to  death, 
but  with  an  indefinite  reprieve."  In  saying 
this  there  is  no  denial  that  the  picture  of  life 
has  in  it  light  and  joy  and  gracious  meanings. 
There  are  the  anticipations  of  youth,  the  work 
and  development  of  maturer  years,  the  satis- 
factions of  study,  of  growth,  and  the  delights 
as  well  as  the  pains  of  thought.  There  are  the 
inheritances  of  overcoming.  There  are  pre- 
cious affections  and  friendships,  and  the  mem- 
ories of  them. 

Nevertheless,  if  this  were  all  of  life,  and  the 
creation  of  the  earth  and  its  people  were  in 
question,  had  I  a  voice  in  it,  I  would  say,  "  No, 
do  not  make  a  world  where  the  law  of  struggle 
is  the  law  of  life, —  a  world  for  the  vast  majori- 
ties, in  all  ages  and  in  all  lands,  in  the  glooms 
of  darkness, —  a  world  of  incompleteness  every- 
where,—  a  world  of  toil,  where  most  people  are 
glad  if  they  can  eat  when  they  are  hungry, 
drink  when  they  are  thirsty,  and  sleep  when 
they  are  tired, —  a  world  hurrying  to  the  insa- 
tiable and  ever  ready  grave."  Grant  all  the  sat- 
isfactions of  intellect  and  of  taste,  the  thoughts 
and  fancies  of  the  brain,  and  all  the  glory 
which  in  the  seasons  the  world  puts  on,  and 
if  this  were  all  of  life,  I  would  say,  "  No,  do 
not  create  it,"  and  so  would  God. 

7 


Wt.  ^eatV^  2Ibbrc^^ 


You  remember  that  when  the  Lord  of  Life 
came  to  face  the  termination  of  Eis  earthly 
existence,  how  pained  His  disciples  were.  They 
could  not  be  satisfied.  This  sudden  sundering 
of  their  hopes,  and  the  knowledge  that  they 
should  look  into  that  beloved  face  no  more, 
filled  their  hearts  with  sorrow.  Their  Master's 
reply  was,  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled ; 
yon  believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me."  He 
was  saying,  "  This  world  is  but  one  room  in 
the  Father's  house.  Life  is  not  short;  it  is 
time  that  is  short.  Life  does  not  terminate 
here,  life  goes  on." 

Let  Him  who  said,  "  I  am  the  light  of  the 
world,"  put  His  light  upon  the  picture  of  life, 
and  there  is  a  new  aspect  to  what  we  see.  It 
transfigures  it  now.  The  face  which  has  been 
claimed  by  death  brightens  with  glory.  The 
shadows  lose  their  darkness.  We  see  now 
what  before  was  invisible.  We  also  see  that 
that  which  we  called  incompleteness  was  our 
dimness  of  vision.  In  this  strong  light  earth 
is  not  a  place  of  burial.  It  is  everywhere  life 
— and  life  more  abundant,  springing  up  out  of 
death.  That  which  we  call  death  is  but  a 
point  in  the  life  of  advancing  being,  a  door 
through  which  we  pass  onward,  a  moving  for- 
ward. When  the  mortal  frame  can  no  longer 
serve  the  high  interests  of  the  soul,  the  death- 

8 


SDr»55earb*!0?  SCbbrejefief 


less  spirit  seeks  more  perfect  relations  and  the 
life  still  goes  on.  What  we  call  dissolution  is 
a  step  into  a  larger  development  of  life.  Even 
Nature  is  trying  to  show  us  this  all  the  time. 
In  the  freshness  of  every  spring,  in  the  glory 
of  every  summer,  and  in  the  fruitage  of  every 
autumn.  Nature  is  taking  up  the  parable  of 
life  and  saying  that  in  her  vast  economy 
nothing  ceases  to  be.  Everything  changes. 
Nothing  is  extinct.  Thus  the  explanations  of 
life  come  in  death.  The  mystery  of  the  present 
is  solved  in  the  answer  of  the  future. 

So,  then,  the  real  answer  to  life  is  death, 
namely,  "  When  this  corruption  puts  on  incor- 
ruptiou,  and  this  mortality  puts  on  immor- 
tality, then  death  is  swallowed  up  in  life,"  and 
we  live  on  forever.  The  dying  explains  the 
living.  It  says,  "  The  glory  of  the  terrestrial 
is  one,  the  glory  of  the  celestial  is  another." 

As  I  look  down  now  upon  the  form  through 
which  we  knew  him  whom  we  loved  and  de- 
lighted to  honor,  I  seem  to  hear  the  prayer  of 
Christ  for  his  larger  life :  "  Lord,  I  will  that 
those  whom  Thou  hast  given  me  be  with  me 
where  I  am,  that  they  may  behold  my  glory." 
Do  you  think  that  he  would  care  for  a  score 
more  of  earthly  years,  now  that  he  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  God  is  getting  his  light  upon  the 
fullness  of  life,  by  the  side  of  which  his  best 

9 


2Dt»  25catb'^  Slbbrc^is? 


knowledge  here  was  but  the  knowledge  of  a 
child?  The  problems  which  interested  him 
here  will  now  be  solved,  and  the  glory  of  his 
present  life  may  not  be  compared  with  any- 
thing of  the  past. 

As  earthly  lives  go,  Dr.  Cravath  has  lived  a 
great  life.  By  all  the  standards  of  our  present 
existence,  it  was  a  great  life.  He  began  in  a 
happy  environment,  a  farmer's  boy  in  a  beau- 
tiful section  of  our  country,  where  life  was  ear- 
nest and  where  schools  were  good.  He  became 
a  student  at  a  college  where  life  again  was  ear- 
nest —  a  college  of  Christian  ideals  and  of  large 
sincerity,  where  God  was  recognized  as  the 
Father  of  all  men,  and  where  God's  fatherhood 
meant  man's  brotherhood.  Here  this  young 
student  came  through  the  college  and  the  the- 
ological seminary  out  into  life,  with  a  faith 
that  life  is  not  a  mistake,  but  is  the  product  of 
God's  love. 

First  he  was  a  pastor,  then  a  chaplain  in  the 
Union  army  until  he  was  mustered  out  of  the 
service  here  in  Nashville  in  June,  1865.  Al- 
most immediately  appointed  by  the  Ameri- 
can Missionary  Association,  no  one  was  more 
responsible  than  he  for  the  beginnings  of  Fisk 
University.  It  was  Dr.  Cravath  who  suggested 
its  name.  It  took  faith  in  that  day  to  call 
those  barracks   just    deserted    by  soldiers  — 

10 


SDt*  26eatti*^  SUblirc^^ 


mere  wooden  shells  of  houses  —  a  university, 
but  he  had  the  faith. 

The  founding  of  this  institution  marked  a 
new  era  in  the  educational  world  for  a  new 
people.  It  was  no  mistake.  As  field  secre- 
tary, Dr.  Cravath  served  the  American  Mis- 
sionary Association  ten  years,  and  in  1875 
became  the  first  and  only  president  of  Fisk 
University.  Thus  Dr.  Cravath  has  given  his 
life  to  this  work  for  thirty-five  years.  He  has 
been  president  of  Fisk  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury.   It  has  been  a  great  life  —  a  great  life. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  of  it  has  seen  this 
institution  grow  from  a  rude  primary  school 
to  its  present  proportions.  Everywhere  it 
bears  Dr.  Cravath's  stamp.  It  is  largely  his 
monument.  To  manage,  govern,  and  direct 
an  institution  of  this  kind  requires  an  excep- 
tional man.  He  must  have  many  gifts;  he 
must  comprehend  its  necessities  not  only,  but 
also  its  possibilities.  He  must  have  initiative 
and  the  power  of  incentive.  He  must  have 
sympathy  with  young  people,  and  humor  for 
the  sake  of  sympathy.  He  must  be  open 
to  improvements,  yet  guard  against  the  de- 
moralization of  restless  experiments.  He  must 
not  only  command  the  respect  and  confidence 
of  the  students  and  the  constituency,  but  by 
his  fairness,  friendliness,  and  power  of  personal 

11 


2Dr*  25eatb*^  SUbbre^e?^ 


kindliness  he  must  secure  their  cordial  cooper- 
ation. He  must  be  able  to  live  optimistically 
and  to  put  up  with  much  faultfinding  and  mis- 
representation, knowing  how  to  take  criticism 
(often  unjust)  patiently  from  those  who  are 
narrow,  opinionated,  and  querulous.  He  must 
be  able  to  receive  pain  as  if  it  did  not  hurt 
him,  and  must  be  courageous  enough  to  be 
true  to  his  recommendations  as  to  teachers 
and  professors,  even  when  it  may  give  them 
pain.  With  positive  convictions,  strong  sense, 
good  judgment,  there  must  be  tact  and  for- 
bearance to  overcome  the  opposition  of  those 
who  do  not  accept  his  judgment.  With  all  this, 
he  must  be  a  man  of  affairs,  with  business 
qualities  in  touch  with  human  nature  about 
him.  Then  he  must  crown  these  qualities  with 
mental  alertness,  intellectual  power,  and  Chris- 
tian devotion. 

I  need  not  say  that  Dr.  Cravath  met  these 
requisitions  and  others  to  a  very  marked  de- 
gree. His  records  in  the  annals  of  the  great 
society  in  which  he  was  so  influential  a  factor 
will  be  handed  down  and  cherished  as  one  of 
great  strength,  of  large  vision,  of  prophetic 
purpose,  and  of  unshrinking  fidelity.  Equally 
removed  from  indecision  and  from  rashness, 
he  tenaciously  held  to  his  convictions  and  to 
his  will.    While  he  did  not  shrink  from  being 

12 


SDr*  25catliV  ICbbrc^j^ 


identified  with  an  unpopular  cause,  lie  never 
lost  his  charity  for  those  who  did  not  see  with 
his  light,  nor  his  regard  for  those  who  differed 
from  him.  So  he  lived  a  faithful  life  —  "faith- 
ful unto  death."  In  its  fidelity,  in  its  influence 
upon  thousands  of  students  who  have  gone  out 
from  his  supervision  with  a  fixed  purpose  to 
be  good  and  true,  in  its  spiritual  power,  in  its 
intention,  and  in  its  achievement,  it  was  a  great 
life.    It  will  hereafter  be  a  greater  life. 

Our  friend  lives  with  the  power  of  an  end- 
less life.  His  work  will  endure.  Doubtless  he 
wiU  know  how  it  goes  on. 

This  university  loses.  His  friends  and  co- 
workers who  honored  him  are  losers.  The 
people  to  whom  he  gave  himself  and  who 
need  such  men  are  losers.  Of  the  loss  to  those 
who  sit  in  the  innermost  circles  of  this  great 
grief  and  sorrow  none  may  speak.  We  sorrow 
together  while  we  a  little  longer  stay  and  wait. 


®^7-«^ 


13 


3ivt}xt^^  of  m^  %  (5.  ^txvai 


T  very  rarely  falls  to  the  lot  of  any 
young  man  to  be  able  to  announce 
at  the  beginning  of  his  career  the 
programme  of  his  life ;  but  thirty- 
six  years  ago  there  stood  a  young 
man  before  a  throng  ten  times  as  large  as  this. 
They  had  been  called  together  by  men  in- 
terested in  them,  desiring  their  elevation, — 
statesmen,  soldiers,  educators.  They  had  been 
summoned  as  they  came  by  regimental  bands 
stationed  here  at  Nashville,  and  as  they  stood 
before  Chaplain  Cravath,  he  then  and  there 
announced  that  a  school  was  planned  for  their 
benefit,  which  should  give  to  them  the  same 
opportunities  that  had  been  afforded  their 
white  brethren  of  the  North  and  South.  To 
the  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  to  the  complet- 
ing of  the  prophecy  there  uttered  Dr.  Cravath 

14 


SDr.  a^mriir^  Slbbrc^ie? 


gave  his  entire  career,  and  to-day  we  stand  in 
the  presence  of  his  work. 

This  beautiful  campus,  these  majestic  build- 
ings, are  the  monuments,  physically  speaking, 
of  our  dear  brother  who  has  thus  completed 
his  career.  But  they  are  only  the  physical 
tokens  of  the  glorious  outcome  of  his  great 
life.  All  over  the  Southland  to-day — in  hum- 
ble homes,  to  be  sure,  but  in  homes  that 
owe  well-nigh  everything  to  this  University  — 
there  live  true-hearted  men  and  women  who 
are  rearing  their  little  children,  and  in  the 
neighborhoods  in  which  they  dwell  are  a  con- 
stant influence  for  good,  because  of  this  man's 
life.  Compared  with  this  outcome  of  Chaplain 
Cravath's  prophecy  and  promise,  this  institu- 
tion which  we  see  here  is  as  nothing. 

What  gained  this  marvelous  success  which 
we  to-day  can  only  begin  to  comprehend  ?  It 
was  the  magnificent  equipment  which  God 
gave  him  at  the  outset.  Born  to  be  a  states- 
man, he  has  attained  more  than  a  statesman's 
success.  It  was  impossible  for  him  to  see 
things  in  a  small  way,  after  a  petty  fashion. 
He  could  see  things  in  the  large,  as  a  states- 
man must  always  see  things, —  in  the  large. 
He  could  use  men  for  lofty  purposes,  as  a 
statesman  will  always  use  men, —  for  a  lofty 
purpose.    And  because  he  was  born  a  states- 

15 


SDr»  ^tttiW^  %mtt^0 


man,  and  had  the  qualifications  which  would 
have  enabled  him,  had  he  gone  into  politics, 
to  have  risen  to  the  very  front  rank,  he  has 
lived  this  glorious  life  of  which  we  tell  here 
to-day. 

He  was  also  a  general.  He  knew  how  to 
lead  men ;  he  was  always  at  the  front ;  never 
asked  those  who  cooperated  with  him  to  go 
where  he  would  not  dare  to  go ;  he  was  ready 
to  endure  self-denial ;  he  understood  those  who 
followed  him,  and  he  led  them  to  victory. 

More  than  all.  President  Cravath  was  a 
Christian  man.  There  is  nothing  so  magnifi- 
cent under  heaven  as  a  true  Christian  man: 
more  lofty  than  the  statesman,  who  can  only 
rule  the  affairs  of  a  nation  for  a  day;  more 
superb  than  a  general,  who  can  only  lead 
armies  for  present  victories.  A  Christian  man 
has  within  him  an  endless  life,  and  we  rejoice 
in  the  thought,  as  we  stand  before  the  bier  of 
the  man  whom  we  loved  with  all  our  hearts, 
that  he  had  the  Christian  manhood  which  has 
given  him  the  power  to  do  the  work  which  is 
not  finished,  and  can  be  finished  only  as  it  is 
followed  out  in  the  lines  which  he  has  laid 
down  as  a  statesman,  in  the  lines  which  he  has 
laid  down  as  a  general,  in  a  campaign  which 
he  projected  as  a  man  of  such  proportions  as 
to  be  able  to  command  the  following  of  other 

16 


SDr.  ^milV^  %bbvt$$ 


men  in  doing  a  work  which  is  to  last  through 
all  the  centuries. 

We  say  good-by  for  a  moment  to  our  good 
friend,  and  only  a  few  years  hence  we  are 
going  to  stand  beside  him  and  talk  over  the 
work  that  he  here  did;  and  as  we  recall  the 
fact  that  he  on  one  night  lay  in  his  soldier's 
tent  beneath  the  stars  on  this  very  campus, 
before  he  was  mustered  out  of  the  service,  we 
can  well  believe  that  he  saw  in  his  dreams 
that  night  a  ladder  more  lofty  than  the  ladder 
of  Jacob  —  a  ladder  that  reached  unto  heaven, 
and  not  only  one  which  he  could  ascend,  but 
up  which  he  could  lead  a  race  that  he  loved, 
a  race  for  which  he  lived,  a  race  for  which  he 
gave  his  life. 


^^^^^^i^i^m 


17 


aiiliresifl;  of  J^x.  Slames  31-  aJance* 


TAKE  my  stand  this  afternoon 
inside  the  circle  of  grief  of  Fisk 
University  and  its  friends,  and  am 
grateful  for  the  privilege  which 
permits  me  to  pay  my  tribute  of 
loving  respect  to  the  memory  of  President 
Cravath, 

Some  of  you  knew  him  more  intimately  than 
did  I,  and  yet  I  knew  him  and  admired  him 
for  what  he  was  and  for  what  he  did.  Per- 
haps better  than  I  knew  him,  did  I  know  his 
work ;  and,  after  all,  it  is  a  man's  work  that  tells 
the  story  of  a  man's  life.  It  is  not  so  much 
what  a  man's  views  are,  for  honest  men  may 
differ  in  their  views.  Sometimes  we  have  a 
silly  way  of  estimating  manhood  by  its  views ; 
we  have  a  way  of  saying  that  a  man  who  holds 
to  our  views  is  a  very  good  man,  and  the  man 
who  differs  from  our  views  is  a  very  bad  man. 
But  the  divine  standard  is  not  to  estimate  a 

18 


2Dr»  Oance'^  5lbbrc^^ 


man  by  his  views.  "  By  their  fruits  you  shall 
know  them.''  The  great  question  which  God 
asks  is  of  a  man's  life  work.  It  is  the  life  work 
that  reflects  the  man. 

It  is  by  his  life  work  that  President  Cravath 
vindicates  his  claim  to  our  love  and  respect, 
and  to  the  love  and  respect  of  the  white  race 
and  the  black  race  in  the  years  that  fall  behind, 
and  in  the  years  that  are  to  come. 

His  work  was  vast  in  its  sweep  and  great  in 
its  achievements.  How  vast  his  work  was  in 
its  sweep  only  the  coming  years  will  tell,  for 
he  has  been  working  at  the  foundation ;  and 
however  conspicuous  his  work,  still,  compared 
with  its  results  in  the  future,  I  believe  we  shall 
come  to  see  that  he  was  working  largely  down 
out  of  sight.  When  the  superstructure  which 
shall  rise  on  the  foundation  which  he  has 
raised  appears,  we  shall  then  see  how  vast  was 
the  scope  of  the  work  which  he  has  done. 

It  was  a  work  also  great  in  its  achievements. 
It  was  great  because  of  the  difficulties  he  had 
to  overcome.  How  great  those  difficulties 
were  none  know  so  well  as  we  who  dwell 
here.  His  work  was  made  more  difficult,  some- 
times, by  stupid  blunderers  in  one  section,  and 
by  blunderers  of  prejudice  in  another.  Great 
difficulties  had  to  be  overcome  before  the  in- 
stitution could  begin  to  breathe  its  life.    They 

19 


2Dr*  Qmtt'^  Xbbre^^ 


were  met  courageously  and  mastered  man- 
fully. His  work  was  great  because  of  the  self- 
sacrifice  it  involved ;  and  how  great  was  that 
self-sacrifice  we  who  dwell  here  best  know. 
To  do  this  work  it  was  necessary  for  a  man  to 
make  himself  of  no  reputation.  Dr.  Cravath 
caught  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  became  a 
minister. 

It  was  a  work  great  in  its  character.  The 
most  difficult  task  in  behalf  of  the  colored  race 
is  that  which  President  Cravath  took  up  into 
his  heart.  More  difficult,  I  think,  than  the 
task  of  emancipation  has  been  the  task  of  edu- 
cation. By  as  much  as  Moses'  task  in  the  wil- 
derness was  more  difficult  than  his  task  in 
Egypt,  by  so  much  has  the  task  of  Dr.  Cravath 
and  the  men  who  are  allied  with  him  in  similar 
work  been  more  difficult  than  that  of  the  men 
who  struck  the  fetters  from  the  slave. 

Perhaps  his  work  was  greatest  because  of 
the  spirit  which  animated  it  and  the  beauty 
which  rested  upon  it,  and  which  appeared  to 
those  of  us  who  stood  by  and  watched  him  as 
he  toiled. 

I  think  the  supreme  triumph  of  his  victory 
is  that  here,  under  all  these  difficult  surround- 
ings, he  did  a  work  which  has  alike  commended 
itself  to  white  man,  black  man,  to  Northman 
and  to  Southman.    Fisk  University  has  never 

20 


SDtr*  aanceV  5lbbte^^ 


been  a  menace  to  aught  that  was  dear  to  the 
Southern  heart, —  indeed,  it  has  been  a  blessed 
safeguard ;  and  if  the  spirit  which  breathed  in 
President  Cravath,  lived  in  his  work,  and  is 
represented  by  you  who  constitute  Fisk  Uni- 
versity, obtained  throughout  the  South  and 
North,  there  would  be  no  race  question. 

Dr.  Cravath  moved  among  us,  commanding 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  all.  We  knew 
him  for  an  honest,  earnest,  kindly  Christian 
man ;  and  because  he  did  such  a  work  as  this 
among  us,  I  say  that  he  was  a  great  man.  But 
he  was  something  more  than  great:  he  was 
good  —  a  great,  good  man,  and  greatest  in  his 
goodness.  He  was  a  friend  to  thousands  who 
needed  a  friend ;  he  was  a  prophet  in  an  hour 
of  darkness,  a  patriot  in  a  time  of  turmoil  and 
confusion. 

There  is  a  verse  in  the  Bible  which  says : 

A  man  shall  be  an  hiding  place  from  the 
wind,  and  a  covert  from  the  tempest ;  as  rivers 
of  water  in  a  dry  place,  as  the  shadow  of  a 
great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 

I  think  President  Cravath  fulfilled  that 
prophecy.  He  was  just  that  —  an  hiding-place 
from  the  wind,  a  covert  from  the  tempest, 
as  rivers  of  water  in  a  dry  place,  and  as  the 
shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 

21 


2Dr.  OanceV  Stbbte^^ 


Among  other  stories  told  of  Henry  Drum- 
mond  is  this :  A  Scotchwoman's  husband  was 
dying,  and  at  the  twilight  hour  she  came  for 
Drummond  to  go  to  the  sick  man's  room.  She 
said  to  him :  "  My  husband  is  deein',  sir,  and 
he  can  no  see  ye,  and  he  can  no  speak  to  ye, 
but  I  wad  like  him  to  hae  a  breath  o'  ye  aboot 
him  afore  he  dees."  This  is  a  beautiful  thing 
to  say  of  any  man.  To  be  an  angel's  presence 
at  the  bedside  of  one  whose  spirit  is  about  to 
make  its  departure  is  not  to  have  lived  in  vain. 
That  is  the  way  you  feel  toward  Dr.  Cravath. 
His  presence  was  an  angel's  presence  to  you, 
whose  faces  are  suffused  with  tears  to-day. 
His  work  was  a  blessed  work,  he  was  Christ's 
minister.  The  work  is  over  so  far  as  his  per- 
sonality is  concerned ;  yet  the  work  itself  has 
just  begun.  The  work  will  go  on.  Grod  has 
called  the  toiler  home,  and  when  the  message 
came  it  was  just  the  voice  of  the  vesper  angels 
calling  him  out  of  the  field  of  human  toil  to 
bid  him  take  his  rest.  It  was  a  sweet  whisper 
of  divine  love  saying,  "  Steal  away,  steal  away, 
steal  away  to  Jesus ; "  and  he  has  gone  to  be 
forever  with  his  Lord. 

I  need  not  bid  you  cherish  his  memory,  for 
already  you  have  caught  it  up  in  your  hearts, 
and  you  will  pronounce  his  name  in  benedic- 
tion to  the  generations  which  shall  come  after. 

22 


awrress  of  Keb.  Cftarto  M.  flDunn. 


S  one  privileged  for  some  years  to 
be  the  pastor  of  President  Cravath 
and  his  family,  I  should  like  to  add 
a  brief  word  of  tribute. 
A  few  years  ago,  in  one  of  the 
devotional  meetings  that  are  held  weekly  in 
Fisk  University,  the  plan  of  the  meeting  was 
to  invite  members  of  the  congregation  to  name 
their  favorite  chapter  in  the  Bible.  After  a 
number  had  risen  and  responded,  going  over 
several  of  those  chapters  that  are  familiar  and 
sacred  to  every  child  of  God,  President  Cravath 
rose  and  probably  surprised  many  in  the  con- 
gregation by  naming  —  perhaps  he  did  not  say 
it  was  absolutely  the  favorite  among  all,  but 
one  of  his  favorites  at  least  —  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis.  It  was  an  indication  simply  of  the 
type  of  life  in  the  man.  It  was  an  illustration 
of  the  fact,  which  we  all  observed  as  he  lived 

23 


a^r*  a^unn*^  SEbbre^ef^ 


before  us  and  worked  with  us,  that  he  found 
his  richest  life  in  fellowship  with  the  great 
fundamentals,  with  the  great  verities  that  un- 
derlie all  life. 

President  Cravath  did  not  care  much  for  the 
quibbles  of  theology,  although  he  was  one  who 
understood  theological  thought.  When  he  said 
that  the  first  chapter  of  Grenesis  was  one  of  his 
favorites,  he  was  not  speaking  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  critic,  although  he  kept  up  with 
the  times  and  sympathized  with  the  legitimate 
movements  that  led  to  better  views  of  these 
subjects.  He  was  speaking  as  one  who  saw 
what  every  spiritual  Christian  sees  in  that 
account,  a  revelation  of  the  living  God,  whose 
wisdom,  love,  and  power  account  for  all  things. 
He  was  thinking  of  "In  the  beginning  Grod 
created  the  heaven  and  the  earth."  Just  the 
thought  of  an  infinite,  personal  Creator  back 
of  all  things  visible  and  invisible  —  that  was  a 
joy  and  an  inspiration  in  his  life.  That  was 
enough  to  furnish  the  motive  for  a  steadfast, 
unwearying  life  of  service.  Here  we  find  the 
explanation  of  his  life  —  of  his  greatness,  for  it 
was  greatness  that  he  had.  Here  also  we  find 
the  secret  of  the  intensely  practical  character 
of  his  life.  For  the  most  practical  force  that 
can  come  into  a  man's  life  is  the  inspiration 
that  he  gets  from  fellowship  with  great  things. 

24 


a^r*  SDuitnV  5llbbtejefi0t 


Not  only  did  President  Cravath  himself  live 
in  the  fellowship  of  the  great  facts  and  ideas 
of  the  universe,  thus  enriching  and  expanding 
his  personal  life,  but  he  believed  in  the  power 
of  these  things  as  forces  to  accomplish  what 
the  world  needs  to  have  done.  He  knew  how, 
also,  effectively  to  wield  these  forces.  We  clas- 
sify ministers  according  to  the  lines  of  work  in 
which  they  seem  to  excel.  Possibly  very  few 
of  those  who  lived  under  President  Cravath's 
ministry  would  think  of  calling  him  distinc- 
tively an  evangelistic  preacher.  But  some  of 
the  most  powerful  evangelistic  sermons  that 
have  been  heard  in  our  midst  have  come  from 
the  lips  of  this  man,  as  he  held  before  his 
hearers  in  vivid  light  some  of  the  eternal  veri- 
ties. There  are  lighter  methods  of  preaching 
that  stir  the  surface  feelings  and  produce  ap- 
parently greater  effects.  But  they  are  not  so 
effective  to  secure  the  real  object  of  the  gospel 
— ^.the  conforming  of  a  soul  to  the  image  of  the 
Son  of  God.  As  much  as  any  man  I  ever 
knew,  President  Cravath  seemed  to  feel  the 
vanity  of  the  former  and  the  power  of  the 
latter  conception  of  evangelistic  preaching. 
He  knew  that  if  men  could  not  be  touched  and 
moved  to  duty  by  the  contemplation  of  the 
great  facts  and  truths  of  G-od  and  men,  of  life 
and  destiny,  it  were  little  use  to  try  to  move 

25 


<H[9c.  SDuntf  ^  2llblnre^i0f 


them  in  any  other  way.  The  lighter  ways  may 
scratch  the  surface,  but  they  do  not  touch  the 
roots  of  life.  President  Cravath  believed  in 
the  reality  of  spiritual  things  and  in  the  prac- 
tical character  of  spiritual  forces.  He  did  not 
think  that  the  wood  which  the  carpenter 
handles  is  any  more  practical  than  the  human 
soul,  human  life,  human  beings  of  any  race  or 
color ;  he  did  not  think  that  the  plan  that  the 
architect  draws  for  a  building  is  any  more 
practical  than  the  pattern  that  has  been  set 
before  mankind  in  Jesus  Christ;  he  did  not 
think  that  the  tools  which  the  carpenter 
wields,  the  plane  and  saw  and  hammer,  are 
any  more  practical  for  their  purpose  than  are 
the  word  of  God  and  truth  and  love  and  the 
Divine  Spirit  as  forces  to  work  upon  human 
life  in  the  process  of  building  God's  spiritual 
temple. 

I  have  spoken  of  these  characteristics  of  our 
beloved  president  because  this  is  the  sort  of 
vision  of  him  that  has  been  coming  to  me  ever 
since  the  telegraph  brought  the  sorrowful  mes- 
sage that  he  was  no  more  to  be  among  us 
in  the  walks  of  earthly  life.  But  I  speak  of 
them  for  another  reason.  These  great  funda- 
mentals in  which  he  found  his  life  are  just  the 
things  that  are  most  precious  in  the  time  of 
sorrow  like  this.    I  wonder  if,  after  all,  there 

26 


a^t*  SDunn'iBf  SUbbre^ief 


is  any  finer  passage  for  a  funeral  occasion,  that 
could  mean  more,  or  come  home  with  greater 
power,  than  "In  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heaven  and  the  earth."  If  it  were  neces- 
sary to  offer  comfort  to  these  sorrowing  ones 
to-day,  I  wonder  if  it  could  be  found  in  any 
better  way  than  in  recalling  the  great  un- 
changeable facts  of  the  infinite  God,  with  his 
infinite  wisdom,  love,  and  power.  Sometimes 
we  place  the  love  of  God  in  the  foreground. 
We  say,  God  is  love.  And  so  the  Scriptures 
say.  But  somehow  we  take  this  for  granted. 
We  cannot  think  of  a  malevolent  God.  God  is 
love;  yes,  God  is  love.  And  God  is  wisdom. 
How  glad  we  are  that  God  is  wisdom  when  we 
sit  where  these  that  are  now  in  sorrow  are 
sitting!  And  are  we  not  glad  that  God  is 
power  ?  Granted  that  His  acts  are  prompted 
by  love;  granted  that  they  are  directed  by  un- 
erring wisdom :  is  there  power  enough  to  hold 
the  creatures  of  His  love  and  wisdom  in  firm 
control?  When  a  strong  worker  is  taken 
away  in  the  prime  of  his  powers,  leaving  a 
vacancy  that  seems  almost  impossible  to  fill, 
is  there  any  slip  in  the  cogs  of  the  divine 
machinery  ?  Is  it  because  there  is  no  master 
hand  to  keep  things  as  they  ought  to  be? 
When  that  little  babe  is  breaking  its  mother's 
heart  as  it  lies  there,  with  its  sweet,  pale  face 

27 


<It^.2[)umi'^31ltitee^^ 


among  the  flowers,  waiting  to  be  laid  in  its 
little  grave,  is  that  because  there  is  no  power  ? 
Is  it  because  the  divine  hand  is  impotent  to 
preserve  the  life  it  has  given  ?  No ;  the  com- 
fort comes,  the  joy  comes,  because  we  remem- 
ber that  God  is  wisdom,  God  is  love,  God  is 
power. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  realize  this  comfort. 
The  world  cannot  always  keep  from  asking, 
Why  1  as  it  groans  under  the  weight  of  suffer- 
ing. But  I  would  call  your  attention  to  a  say- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  which  has  been  so  much 
with  me  in  these  days  that  have  just  passed 
since  this  sorrow  came  to  us.  God  was  speak- 
ing to  the  people  of  Israel,  reminding  them  of 
their  history.  "  He  humbled  thee,  and  suffered 
thee  to  hunger,  and  fed  thee  with  manna, 
which  thou  knewest  not,  neither  did  thy 
fathers  know ;  that  he  might  make  thee  know 
that  man  doth  not  live  by  bread  only,  but  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Lord  doth  man  live."  There  is  no  ex- 
pense that  will  be  spared,  no  price  too  great  to 
pay,  to  get  men  to  understand  and  accept  in 
their  lives  this  fundamental  truth.  God  will 
not  spare  any  expense  to  Himself;  He  has 
risen  up  early  and  sent  His  messengers,  He  has 
sent  forth  His  only-begotten  Son,  He  has  loved 
and  suffered  and  sacrificed,  that  a  conviction 

9» 


a^r^SDunnV  SCbbre^^ 


of  this  truth  might  become  lodged  in  the  hearts 
of  men.  Neither  will  He  spare  His  children 
any  expense,  if  that  expense  is  necessary  to 
make  men  know  that  man  doth  not  live  by 
bread  only.  They  must  go  through  deep 
waters,  they  must  pass  through  fierce  fires, 
they  must  hunger  and  be  fed  from  hand  to 
mouth,  if  in  no  other  way  they  can  learn  God's 
thought  of  man  —  that  his  life  is  not  in  the 
things  of  time  and  sense  only.  Beasts  may 
live  by  bread  only ;  man  may  exist  that  way ; 
but  man,  made  in  the  image  of  His  God,  does 
not  live  that  way.  He  may  spend  his  life  turn- 
ing stones  into  bread,  getting  wealth  and  fame 
and  power ;  but  he  has  not  found  life  unless 
he  has  found  it  in  fellowship  with  God.  Man 
lives  by  everything  that  proceeds  out  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Lord.  In  what  I  have  said  I  do 
not  mean  that  individual  suffering  is  inflicted 
necessarily  because  of  the  needs  of  the  one 
who  suffers,  but  the  world's  suffering  is  for  the 
world's  discipline. 

It  would  give  me  pleasure  to  speak  more 
of  personal  things ;  to  recall  those  eight  years 
since  President  Cravath  took  me  into  his  fa- 
therly affection  and  gave  me  the  privilege  of 
his  fellowship.  But  this  is  not  proper  at  this 
hour.  I  bring  to  you  who  are  here  to-day  this 
testimony  to  the  comfort,  to  the  joy  that  comes 

29 


a^*SDunnV5llbtee^^ 


out  of  fellowship  with  God  —  fellowship  not 
with  the  transient  and  little  things  of  life,  but 
with  the  great  things  that  lift  us  up,  that  fill  us 
with  divinity,  that  put  us  on  the  way  of  growth, 
until  at  last  we  shall  be  conformed  to  the  image 
of  the  Son  of  God. 


^f^^^^'-T^f^^- 


30 


Resolutions  adopted  at  the  Fifty-fourth  Annual 
Meeting  of  the  American  Missionary  Association^  held 
at  Springfieldj  Mass.,  Octoher  23,  1900. 


HE  American  Missionary  Associa- 
tion, with  profound  grief,  deplores 
the  loss  from  the  ever-lessening 
ranks  of  its  laborers  of  one  who, 
as  a  secretary  of  the  Association 
and  president  of  its  largest  institution  of  learn- 
ing, has  for  nfore  than  a  generation  cham- 
pioned the  principles  for  which  the  Associa- 
tion was  founded  —  Erastus  Milo  Cravath. 

"  The  Association  would  place  upon  record 
its  high  appreciation  of  the  great  ability  and 
deep  consecration  of  the  first  and  only  presi- 
dent of  the  institution,  which,  in  common  with 
other  schools  of  the  Association,  he  planted  at 
strategic  centers  in  the  South. 

"It  would  convey  to  the  family  of  Dr.Cravath, 
and  to  the  faculty,  alumni,  and  student-body 
of  Fisk  University,  its  profound  sympathy  in 
view  of  their  bereavement. 

31 


Illeiefoluticmief 


"It  would  join,  with  all  the  friends  of  the 
people  for  whom  Fisk  was  founded,  in  prayer 
to  God  that  He  should  choose  one  to  succeed 
President  Cravath  who  shall  work  out  the 
plans  for  the  fulfilment  of  which  this  master- 
workman  wrought,  for  which  he  laid  down  his 
life." 


^^^mmusmi 


Ml8441^ 


CZ-7 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  UBRARY 


